


Scandal, Season 4, Episode 21, A Few Good Women

by TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer



Category: Scandal (TV)
Genre: Analysis, Episode Review, Episode: s04e21 A Few Good Women, Meta, Nonfiction, Season/Series 04, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-27
Updated: 2019-05-27
Packaged: 2020-03-20 13:30:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,666
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18993607
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer/pseuds/TheSomewhatRamblingReviewer
Summary: Warning: Contains spoilers for the episode and the rest of the series. Complete.





	Scandal, Season 4, Episode 21, A Few Good Women

Open to an injured Jake having nightmares. He wakes up in Olivia’s bed, and she brings him coffee and another pillow. He asks about Russell, and before leaving, she assures him Russell is being taken care of.

The next scene is of Quinn getting ready to torture a bound and gagged Russell. Huck is supervising, and thankfully, Charlie isn’t here, because, he might be a little insecure about how vocally appreciative she is of Russell’s body.

On a more serious note, the moral darkness of a main character torturing someone aside, this scene likely wouldn’t be played for dark comedy if a man had a half-naked woman tied up and was making comments about her being hot and in incredible shape.

Quinn does something to his nail, and when it comes to torturing, I’m not going to pay attention enough to be able to describe what exactly is being done. She makes it clear she wants information on Foxtail.

Given where this storyline goes, this doesn’t work for me.

I’ll acknowledge the show has been fair in, once this is revealed, it remains a consistent facet to the show, but this is something certain characters should have already known.

Codenames used by Secret Service aren’t hidden from the public. Even assuming Scandal!verse doesn’t have Wikipedia, it wouldn’t take long for an average citizen to find out Fitz is Falcon, Mellie is Foxtail, and Jerry and Karen were/are (insert codenames). Personally, my headcanon is Jerry was Foxhound and Karen is Foxcraft.

Yet, people who have worked in the White House, especially Olivia and David, and in Olivia’s case, been on the Grant campaign, are desperately trying to find out what Operation Foxtail could be. More likely, Olivia and David would both be at the White House saying, ‘Mellie, uh, here’s some backstory…  Now, we think Rowan might be after you.’

Olivia comes in, and Huck exposits they have three hours before Rowan calls Russell. Olivia tells Russell he will not get the mercy of death, and he better start talking before more torture begins.

Meanwhile, Susan is on a Naval base, and everyone is happy and respectful until she comes across a woman with a bruise on her wrist. She wants to talk to the woman privately, and everyone is like, ‘Um, no,’ only, they can’t exactly explicitly say no to the VP.

Once she’s gotten the woman, Ensign Amy Martin, alone, she kindly makes it plain she doesn’t believe a training accident was responsible for the injuries.

The next scene, I admit I really shouldn’t find as funny as I do, especially with the seriousness of the storyline.

So, Susan has sorta, maybe, kinda, I’m not really sure what the legal definition of what she’s done is, kidnapped Ensign Martin, and now, Ensign Martin is sitting awkwardly outside the Oval.

Inside the Oval, Cyrus yells, “You stole a United States servicewoman!” Hee.

“I removed Ensign Martin from an unsafe situation,” Susan corrects.

Yeah, but she also did kind of kidnap/steal her in the process.

Susan declares Ensign Martin was raped, and then, she goes into detail about how effed up the Navy is at sometimes handling such things. For example, if a woman files a complaint and the man is found not guilty, the woman gets in trouble for filing the complaint. She informs Fitz, “You are the commander in chief of the armed forces. The Navy is an armed force.”

As much as I genuinely love Susan, I can’t be on her side when it’s revealed Ensign Martin hasn’t actually told her (Susan) that Ensign Martin was raped. She’s decided this for herself and is possibly kidnapping people and making incredibly serious declarations of them being victims with absolutely no substantial proof.

Now, if Ensign Martian had claimed rape, I’d be all for Susan using her power to try to help her. Even if there was nothing beyond the ensign’s word, I’d think it was great Susan was all, ‘I am going to believe this woman,’ because, deliberate, malicious false accusations of rape are incredibly rare, whereas, girls/women either not being believed or being blamed is too common. Most of the time, if a girl/woman says she was sexually assaulted, she’s telling the truth, or she is genuinely mistaken about who did it, where it happened, things like that.

Likewise, the same is true for male victim/survivors. In most cases, they’re telling the truth, or they’re genuinely mistaken about something involving the attack. It’s never any victim/survivor’s fault that someone hurt them in such a way. I don’t care if they were dancing around naked and flirting/verbally taunting someone, I don’t care how many times they had or hadn’t had sex in the past, and I’ve never understood how anyone could think doing something to hurt an intoxicated or unconscious person is ever okay.

Whatever this says about me, in some instances, if I came across an intoxicated or unconscious person, I might walk away without trying to help them, and I won’t argue with anyone who deems this immoral. I myself have conflicting feelings about it. However, I wouldn’t actively inflict harm on their body.  

This rant out of the way, Cyrus and Fitz both make some great points, but I’m sticking to reviewing the funny dialogue.

“You stole her, Susan, and you need to put her back,” Cyrus declares.

Put her back, Susan,” a calmer Fitz insists.

Interestingly, despite the seriousness of the situation and the admittedly disturbing way Fitz and Cyrus are talking about Ensign Martin as if she were an object Susan had picked up from the naval base, neither of them actually go out, tell Ensign Martin to go back, and try to make sure she won’t make a big deal out of possibly being kidnapped. Instead, they act as if the only way Ensign Martin can be returned to the naval base is if Susan decides to let her go back.

The next scene had Olivia and David talking on the phone about how neither of them recognise the codename for the First Lady.

Actually, this would have been a good time to bring Tom in. Narratively, it probably wouldn’t fit to have Cyrus do it, but Olivia could visit him again to try to find out what Rowan might have planned for Mellie.

As they’re talking, the Secret Service starts coming into OPA, and Olivia braces herself to face Fitz. Instead, Susan is revealed. Heh.

The next scene has Olivia meeting Ensign Martin at the naval base.

Meanwhile, there’s more torturing of Russell. Rowan calls, Huckleberry Quinn argues for so long about whether to answer it or not, I’m surprised Rowan didn’t hang up, and when they do finally answer it, they can’t get him to stay on the phone for the necessary twelve seconds.

In the White House, Liz is trying to convince Mellie to go to Springfield. Mellie is refusing on the grounds of her son was assassinated in Springfield.

It could just be me, but I’d have a much easier time understanding a candidate refusing to go someplace where such a tragedy happened than them going and making a speech about it happening. However, everyone handles grief in different ways, and it’s not right to place moral judgements unless the grieving person actually starts to hurt other people.

Next, OPA have taken time out of dealing with Russell to help Ensign Martin. Part of this is convincing her to accept help. Once Olivia does, it’s revealed an admiral from earlier is the rapist. “He’s celebrated, decorated, pretty much untouchable,” Quinn declares.

Over at the White House, Olivia is trying to talk to Abby about the case, and Abby is trying to talk about the Fitz/Jake/Olivia situation. She brings up the guy with great abs she was rooting for, Russell.

Olivia casually answers he wasn’t her type before making it clear she’s going to take on the White House if she has to in order to get Ensign Martin justice. Yay!

She gives a press conference, and in the White House, Fitz, Cyrus, David, and Abby are talking. Cyrus is down for murdering Susan, and everyone else actually cares about what was done but recognises they are in a legitimate legal bind.

Mellie comes in, and Bellamy Young does a great job with this scene. Mellie is truly empathetic here, and more than she cares about political gain, due to her own rape, she truly wants everyone to do the right thing and help Ensign Martin.  

Showing sorrow, pity, and a bit of shame, Fitz nevertheless insists they can’t intervene.

Later, Olivia comes into the torture apartment, and Huck has to stop Russell from killing himself via either cyanide or mercury (Huck is unsure which) in his tooth.

I’m not ashamed to admit I’d absolutely break under torture. I’d like to think, though, in such an instance, I could manage to be a little sarcastic. If it were me, I’d hope to be, ‘No one even tried a simple Google search? Foxtail is the First Lady, and I’m pretty sure a kid doing a report for Government could tell you that, but no, you had to torture me instead, because, you can steal a national election, but you can’t pay enough attention to hear Mellie occasionally being referred to by her codename by Secret Service agents.’

Olivia is giving Jake medicine later, and he brings up Russell being tortured. He insists Russell will never break under torture. Then, he brings up the fact Russell did exactly what he himself did to successfully seduce Olivia. “The only difference is, I’m in love with you.”

Yes, but I’d say the actual real difference in this scenario is: Olivia cares for Jake enough to recognise he’s human, whereas, Russell is just another piece she can potentially use against Rowan.

Olivia opens up a bit about her kidnapping before rushing off.

There’s a brief BNC scene about what’s going on with Ensign Martin’s case.

Over at a naval facility, Ensign Martin’s advocate comes in, and Olivia and Quinn are not impressed.

Dan Byrd is an excellent choice for this role. He’s so good at playing earnest, slightly awkward, occasionally bumbling characters, I’m guessing many people didn’t see the twist coming.

The meeting later doesn’t well, partly because of Virgil, the advocate, and partly, because, the admiral was good at covering his tracks.

At OPA, Abby shows up to say, despite being technically aligned with the White House, she wants to help. Yay!

Then, Olivia gets a call from Ensign Martin, and she immediately goes to see her. Pregnant Ensign Martin wants an abortion. Despite supporting her choice, Olivia says waiting a few weeks will mean a paternity test can be performed, and this will prove the admiral raped her.

If this is true, I find it odd there apparently isn’t enough of the father’s DNA to be register until a certain stage. Does the zef only have the mother’s DNA for a certain amount of time? Is it a question of early termination completely destroying all traces of the zef so that there’s no DNA to test?

It’s not the show’s job to explain these things to viewers, but I sometimes wish they would. Knowing my luck, if I tried to look this up, I’d end up on an antiabortion site with graphic pictures.

Back to the scene, Ensign Martin is not okay with waiting a few weeks, but when Olivia tries to take her, it’s made clear there will be no more stealing/kidnapping/otherwise taking Ensign Martin off the ship.

I’d so love a scene where Cyrus was raging about Susan swooping in to once again steal Ensign Martin. I kind of think, at said point, Fitz would just be like, ‘Alright, fine, Susan, you can keep your United States servicewoman until this all over, but when Olivia is done fixing this, you have to give her back for good.’

Meanwhile, Jake comes into the torture flat. Huck is disinfecting Russell’s wounds to make sure he doesn’t get too damaged to be of use.

Jake sends Huck away, frees Russell just enough for Russell to enjoy a beer, and Scott Foley and Brian White do a great job with this scene and show a nice chemistry. Jake makes it clear he’s not trying to get information due to knowing how pointless it would be, they bond over their shared attachment to/exasperation with Rowan, and Russell shows some genuine pity for Olivia being his actual child as opposed to surrogates like them. 

There might be a bit of continuity error when Jake says he never met any of Rowan’s others before Russell, but I’m not sure. He didn’t know Tom was B6-13 until Tom told him, and he might have never found out about Tom’s golden boy status. Likewise, a later episode shows Charlie was around when Jake was first recruited, but then, I don’t think Charlie has ever been truly loyal, never mind close, to Rowan.

Alternatively, Jake was just lying.

Back in OPA, Olivia, Abby, Quinn, and Virgil are trying to figure out how to get Ensign Martin off the ship, and amusingly, Virgil comes across as scandalised at the idea of lying about her having a sick relative she needs to visit.

Later, Fitz, Mellie, and Liz are making plans for Springfield, and Fitz is gentle and supportive of Mellie when Liz pushes too hard.

In Olivia’s apartment, she brings Amy, Virgil, and Quinn in. Huck goes to check on someone next door, and at Virgil’s non-suspicious question, Olivia says there’s renovation being done and that the person Huck is checking on is a contractor friend.

Virgil gets a call, and it’s revealed the Navy won’t release the records of the admiral’s badge swiping. Olivia and Quinn focus on making Ensign Martin comfortable, and then, Olivia steps outside to call Fitz. They have a nice moment.

I’ve never liked the Fitz/Olivia relationship, but scenes like this show I could have liked it if it had been different. Kerry Washington and Tony Goldwyn do have great chemistry, and there are times when the characters of both Olivia and Fitz are fascinating and/or rootable. Most of the time, though, in the earlier seasons, I hated Fitz, and Olivia often annoyed me.

The next scene has Olivia holding Ensign Martin’s hand through the procedure. Aw.

Over in the White House, Fitz and Mellie have a nice, nonsexual scene in bed where they talk about Jerry and Springfield. He doesn’t spell it out, but it’s made clear Fitz is going to help both Olivia and Mellie by giving Olivia what she needs to help Ensign Martin and, therefore, let Mellie focus on the Navy’s outdated way of dealing with rape rather than their son.

The next scene has Abby giving Olivia the logs.

Later, Olivia tells the admiral and his chief of staff the logs clear him, but she knows the chief of staff used the admiral’s badge to cover for him.

There’s a BNC report about a chilling video released online showing the admiral dragging Ensign Martin into his office.

Abby does a press conference, and despite the relentless hounding, she’s proud.

In Springfield, Mellie speaks to an ecstatic crowd, and then, Liz takes her to meet a big pocket donor. The donor is Eli, and it’s revealed Mellie is Foxtail.

Just in case I haven’t been clear: I’m not saying viewers should have known. I didn’t have a clue who or what Foxtail might be until this happened. I do, however, think certain characters definitely should have known Mellie might be targeted and been working to do something, not working to find out something they were clueless about. _They_ should have immediately recognised the codename.

In other news, Virgil knocking Huck out and freeing Russell is intercut with Olivia and Quinn discovering Virgil isn’t Virgil. He’s a B6-13 agent who killed the real Virgil.

Fin.


End file.
